Builds on key understandings of place value (K.NBT.A); Lays foundation for using place value understanding to add and subtract in grades 1 and 2 (1.NBT.B, 2.NBT.B) and to count to 1,000 in grade 2 (2.NBT.A.2)

Rigor

Conceptual Understanding: primary in this lesson

Procedural Skill and Fluency: primary in this lesson

Application: secondary in this lesson

Additional Thoughts

The “Building Tens at the Lego Factory” lesson focuses on developing place value understanding with two-digit numbers so that students will later be able to use their understanding of place value to solve addition and subtraction problems. This lesson is part of a 13-lesson unit that focuses on counting to, and building an understanding of, numbers up to 100; students will not meet the full expectations of the grade-level standards through this lesson alone. It is worth nothing that 1.NBT.A sets an expectation for first graders to be able to count to 120, so more work on counting should occur in later units. This lesson is not intended as an introduction to using tens and ones to represent two-digit numbers, as observed in the “setting up the learning” section.

There are many opportunities for students to meet the full intent of MP.5, use appropriate tools strategically, within this lesson. During the work time, students will be able to choose different tools (cubes, place value blocks, ten frames, and drawings) to help them with their work. There are guiding questions provided that allow the teacher to push student thinking beyond the specific tool chosen. The questions connect the various tools to each other and, more generally, to the structure of numbers (MP.8).

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